Hump Day. A staggering Cowboys team and a Giants team beaming with renewed confidence. There isn’t much else that needs to be said. This is a game of crucial stakes for both sides. Sunday can’t get here fast enough.
Jason Pierre-Plainview?: This week’s NFC Defensive Player of the Week illustrates just how easily a team’s morale can do a complete 180 in a matter of a few weeks. Take a look at Jason Pierre-Paul’s comments from Monday where he channels his inner-Daniel Plainview, the infamously incredible character from the film There Will Be Blood, played by Daniel Day-Lewis.
“We’re going to put it on [the Cowboys], man. It’s going to be a fight. It’s going to be a dogfight. There’s going to be a lot of blood spilled out there.”
Outside of the sorta iffy “dogfight” mention (call me touchy, but…oof…), this isn’t going to be a pretty game win or lose. The Giants saw what the Saints did to them two weeks ago. Now, you’d be foolish to guarantee that the Giants would rack up another forty first downs, but, pardon the pun, the Giants smell blood. The Giants also know that they handed Dallas a victory in the season opener thanks to an unseemly six turnovers. The Cowboys are one push away from being out of the division race. The Giants would like nothing better than to put them out of their misery for 2013.
The the Critics Are Warming: It hasn’t been easy to defend this year’s Giants. For the first month-and-a-half, everyone, including yours truly, was writing epitaphs and peeking ahead to all things 2014. There’s still trepidation due to the quality of quarterbacks that the Giants have faced during their winning streak, but they still have to play the games, weakened opponents or not. They are not going to make excuses; after the flukiness of an 0-6 start where bad bounces were the norm and never ever in the favor of the Giants, they’ll take whatever they can get, however they can get it.
And as happens, two of the staunchest naysayers in Dan Graziano and Don Banks have to admit that there is a very real possibility that these Giants could pull off the nearly-impossible. When those guys entertain the thought of buying in, maybe it’s never a good idea to write the Giants off at any point of a season until the standings tell us not to. It’s still a steep hill to climb, and Nick Foles and the Eagles are absolutely bonkers right now. But with a chance to climb to a game behind, there’s no time like the present to make believers out of everyone.
Final Word: This game is a knockout game for someone. I trust the Giants to execute far better than they did during the opener against a deplorable Cowboys defense. The Giants are rounding into shape and are looking like they’re hitting their stride. The Cowboys appear headed in the opposite direction. The Giants are confident. The Cowboys are not, especially on defense. The Giants will do enough to get their fifth straight win. 35-17.
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